FDA approved Verzenio (abemaciclib) to treat adult patients who have hormone receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative advanced or metastatic breast cancer that has progressed after taking therapy that alters a patient’s hormones.Verzenio, sponsored by Eli Lilly, is approved to be given in combination with an endocrine therapy, called fulvestrant, after the cancer had grown on endocrine therapy. It is also approved to be given on its own, if patients were previously treated with endocrine therapy and chemotherapy after the cancer had spread.
In the absence of the federal funding, cancer research will be leaning on private funders. But few private funders have the freedom to ask fundamental questions—questions whose answers may not have an immediate clinical impact but can dramatically advance scientific knowledge.
